Emerging Therapeutic Biomarkers in Endometrial Cancer

Figure 2

Challenges in the molecular therapeutics of human tumor. The clinical success of targeted drugs has been limited by key challenges, including primary/acquired drug resistance and unexpected side effects on normal tissues due to nonspecificity. The most frequent mechanisms of primary resistance are genetic/epigenetic heterogeneity and the existence of cancer stem cell. Acquired resistance can be caused by the secondary mutation in the target gene, activation of alternative pathway or feedback loop, and induction of EMT. Treatment of tumor cells with antiangiogenic agents can lead to a more hypoxic tumor microenvironment and enhance tumor cell invasion and metastasis by inducing the EMT- and cancer-stem-cell-like phenotype.